Nikon auto-focus body/manual-focus lenses

Is there a Nikon auto-focus body available that is compatible with the older
manual focus lenses! All of this AI, Non-AI, AIS, blah, blah, blah,
Nikon-speak, has me confused! Can anyone help?

Thanks all!

 

They will generally all "fit" and work fine. The difference is that the
normal Nikon non-pro bodies won't meter with them.

The pro bodies do meter with them.

 

As another poster noted, you can mount most AI and later lenses,
but the light meter won't work with newer consumer-level
AF bodies. An exact compatibility list would be very
long.
I'll list the bodies where at least ome metering
mode (usually center-weighted, but not matrix) will work.
Aperture priority will also work, but other automatic
modes (shutter priority and program mode) might not.

For non-AI lenses (i.e. pre-1977), the only choice in
production is the F5, with the standard AI-tab modification.

The F100 (and D1, D2 series) will meter with AI and newer lenses.

The other current AF bodies will not meter with these lenses.

Among the older AF bodies, the F4 will work with pre-AI lenses.
The F4 is generally the most compatible of the AF bodies.

The F501, F601, F801, F70, F90 will work with AI and later
lenses.

Regards,
Chris

 

In general, most of the older lenses will mount on the newer autofocus bodies.
Even some of my old AI and AIS lens mount on my mom's N65. However, the problem
is getting the in camera meter to work, or in some cases, being able to read
the aperture number off the lens.

To get around that, the more expensive Nikon bodies have accommodated older
lenses, with metering possible through the camera and old lens combination. The
most compatible and versatile of all is the Nikon F4. The Nikon F5 also can
handle many lenses, and Nikon offers a conversion to enable it to handle non-AI
lenses, though there are only a few that might be worth using. The F100 can
also meter with many of the older manual lenses.

Not all metering methods are available to all lenses and bodies combinations,
even if the body was an F4, F5, or F100. Many of the autofocus lenses will also
work nicely on older manual focus Nikon bodies. It is my opinion that if you
find a few nice older manual focus lenses you really want to use, and if the
majority of your lenses are autofocus, it might be easier to dedicate a manual
focus body to that lens (or others). While an F4 is somewhat low cost used, and
F5 or F100 is quite a bit more. If you do not own one of those, look into an
F3, FM, FE, FM2, FE2 or FM3A, which are all nice manual focus bodies, some of
them very affordable.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
Alliance Graphique Studio
<http://www.allgstudio.com>

 

Thanks to all who have replied to my post, sounds like the F4 would offer me
the most versatility and it will give me some growing room!